Threats, biodiversity drivers and restoration in temperate floodplain forests related to spatial scales.

Floodplain forests offer a diversity of habitats and resources for a very wide range of plant and animal species. They also offer many benefits to humankind and are considered essential to the mitigation of the effects of climate change. Nevertheless, throughout the world they are suffering the most intense of anthropogenic pressures so are, of all ecosystems, among the most endangered.

Development of 18 microsatellite markers for .

Premise: Microsatellite markers were developed for the perennial herb (Lamiaceae), a species representative of European dry grasslands. The development of microsatellite markers is needed for genetic and phylogeographical studies of species from the genus .

Methods And Results: We used low-coverage Illumina sequencing to identify microsatellite loci.

Hybridization and polyploidization within the Chenopodium album aggregate analysed by means of cytological and molecular markers.

Hybridization and polyploidization represent an important speciation mechanism in the diploid-polyploid complex of the Chenopodium album aggregate. In the present study we successfully reconstructed the evolutionary histories of the majority of Eurasian representatives of the C. album aggregate, resulting in the most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of this taxonomically intricate group of species to date.

Reduced competition enhances community temporal stability under conditions of increasing environmental stress.

The stress-gradient hypothesis predicts a switch from competition to facilitation, under increasing environmental stress. However, it is unclear how important is the change in competition-facilitation balance (i.e.

The complexity underlying invasiveness precludes the identification of invasive traits: A comparative study of invasive and non-invasive heterocarpic Atriplex congeners.

Heterocarpy enables species to effectively spread under unfavourable conditions by producing two or more types of fruit differing in ecological characteristics. Although it is frequent in annuals occupying disturbed habitats that are vulnerable to invasion, there is still a lack of congeneric studies addressing the importance of heterocarpy for species invasion success. We compared two pairs of heterocarpic Atriplex species, each of them comprising one invasive and one non-invasive non-native congener.

Recent similarity in distribution ranges does not mean a similar postglacial history: a phylogeographical study of the boreal tree species Alnus incana based on microsatellite and chloroplast DNA variation.

We reconstructed the historical pattern of postglacial biogeographic range expansion of the boreal tree species Alnus incana in Europe. To assess population genetic structure and diversity, we performed a combined analysis of nuclear microsatellite loci and chloroplast DNA sequences (65 populations, 1004 individuals). Analysis of haplotype and microsatellite diversity revealed that southeastern refugial populations situated in the Carpathians and the Balkan Peninsula did not spread north and cannot be considered as important source populations for postglacial recolonization of Europe; populations in Eastern Europe did not establish Fennoscandian populations; populations in Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe have no unique genetic cluster, but represent a mix with a predominant cluster typical for Central Europe; and that colonization of Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe took place from Central Europe.

Migration patterns of subgenus Alnus in Europe since the last glacial maximum: a systematic review.

Background/aims: Recently, new palaeoecological records supported by molecular analyses and palaeodistributional modelling have provided more comprehensive insights into plant behaviour during the last Quaternary cycle. We reviewed the migration history of species of subgenus Alnus during the last 50,000 years in Europe with a focus on (1) a general revision of Alnus history since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), (2) evidence of northern refugia of Alnus populations during the LGM and (3) the specific history of Alnus in particular European regions.

Methodology: We determined changes in Alnus distribution on the basis of 811 and 68 radiocarbon-dated pollen and macrofossil sites, respectively.

Plant species coexistence at local scale in temperate swamp forest: test of habitat heterogeneity hypothesis.

It has been suggested that a heterogeneous environment enhances species richness and allows for the coexistence of species. However, there is increasing evidence that environmental heterogeneity can have no effect or even a negative effect on plant species richness and plant coexistence at a local scale. We examined whether plant species richness increases with local heterogeneity in the water table depth, microtopography, pH and light availability in a swamp forest community at three local spatial scales (grain: 0.